Subedar Singh bears the scars of India's painful reliance on dirty power and its struggle to pay for the costly transition to the brave new world of solar and renewable electricity.

Last year, the farmer walked into a field in his village and suffered 70 percent burns to his feet and ankles from an underground coal fire caused by a nearby power plant. Singh said he dragged himself out of the field and then fainted from the searing pain. 

The people of Uncha Amirpur in the northern Uttar Pradesh state -- east of the smog-afflicted capital New Delhi -- discovered that a mix of water and coal used by the nearby NTPC Dadri power plant had accumulated under the field and caught fire. Some cattle died.